Mech Sim Recommendations?

[JamesDixon]

You ever know that there's a Mechwarrior game on SNES?

Yeah and it was shit.

 

[Tweed]

I just finished a replay of Cyberstorm, still the best. Tried Corporate Wars, it's absolute shit. Going to play Mechcommander now.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Titans of Steel: Warring Suns.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Are these games I should be playing with a joystick? MechWarrior 2's tutorial mentions one as if it's a given. I have a Thrustmaster but I don't know if it's appropriate for these games.

 

[Modron]

I don't remember if I played MechWarrior 2 at release or a few years later, so I can't really say if played through it on a keyboard or a thrustmaster joystick. Sorry.

 

[Tweed]

Are these games I should be playing with a joystick? MechWarrior 2's tutorial mentions one as if it's a given. I have a Thrustmaster but I don't know if it's appropriate for these games.

I don't know if it's the optimal way to play now, but guys were putting money down on those fancy new pivoting joysticks back in the day for this game.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Yeah, the joystick support is pretty robust, but unfortunately it's a real pain to mess with DOSBox's joystick configurations. The rudder is being treated as the hat switch for some bizarre reason. I've just got a T16000M stick, I'd bet it'd be even more of a pain with a full-on HOTAS.

From what I've played, I don't think a joystick is mandatory the same way it is for space combat sims like Wing Commander or X-Wing. The nature of those games as flight simulators means you want an input device that can deal with the strain of constantly moving in six degrees of freedom that's also precise enough to aim at targets. It'd be more understandable if these mech sims also incorporated flying elements (which would actually be pretty damn cool for a Gundam game or something), but as it stands these games are more like traditional shooters.

I'm gonna tinker with the joystick anyway just because I like getting opportunities to use mine, but I'll probably end up using the keyboard and mouse. After all, if I'm using a 2-button joystick (which is the only control setup I've got working so far) and I can't do something important like torso twisting without taking my hands off the throttle controls, then why not just entirely use the keyboard?

 

[Avonaeon]

You don't need a joystick, I played MW2 with mouse and keyboard and it was fine. MW3 I played with a joystick and while it felt a bit more cool though.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

The only 2 mech games I completed from beginning to end was the SNES version of MechWarrior and Battletech for the C64, both played on original hardware. The former used Mode 7 graphics rather effectively when you were dropped down onto a planet's surface (but not in actual combat scenarios). I desperately wanted to finish Mechwarrior 2 for DOS but I selected hardest difficulty and hit a stone wall (with 3 or 4 mechs right behind it when an easier difficulty would have likely produced 1 or 2). This was the days where once you selected a difficulty level at the beginning you had to stick with it all through the game or start over, none of this "Dis is tooo hard! I'm gonna switch over to Easy in Options now until I get over that hill!" shit. I also tried Mechwarrior 3 and really liked it at first until I realized that DirectX 6-7-8 was shit on newer DirectX 9+ cards and there was an annoying micro-stutter bug every few steps that only reverting to Windows 95/98 would fix. My new 3+ GHz/Nvidia GTX 1070 rig should have run that ancient game at a buttery 200 FPS but didn't.

Edited to correct: Actually 3 games to completion if you counted Shogo: Mobile Armor Division where you could stomp on the tiny bug-sized (albiet larger praying mantis-sized bugs) humans beneath your feet. That was fun.

 

[Tweed]

Dumped Mechcommander, it's a puzzle game, not a strategy game. I guess there's no other tactical mech games in existence.

 

[flyingjohn]

Dumped Mechcommander, it's a puzzle game, not a strategy game. I guess there's no other tactical mech games in existence.

Megamek and Titans of Steel?

 

[Goldschmidt]

If you want to try a mech game in isometric form: Brigador

https://af.gog.com/en/game/brigador?as=1649904300

 

[easychord]

MetalMercs. In development, inspired by early Westwood Battletech games.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Move over, Battletech. The REAL mecha game has arrived.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I played Mechwarrior 2 consistently when it came out with a joystick and I had no fucking clue what I was doing but it was fun. Hope this helps.

 

[Tweed]

Was trying to play Earthsiege earlier, but it's going to take a bit of finagling to map the joystick to my dualshock in a comfortable fashion. I dunno if I want that undertaking right now.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Was trying to play Earthsiege earlier, but it's going to take a bit of finagling to map the joystick to my dualshock in a comfortable fashion. I dunno if I want that undertaking right now.

It played pretty well with my Thrustmaster. If you've only got a dualshock, then you should probably just play with the keyboard and mouse.

 

[Tweed]

Was trying to play Earthsiege earlier, but it's going to take a bit of finagling to map the joystick to my dualshock in a comfortable fashion. I dunno if I want that undertaking right now.

It played pretty well with my Thrustmaster. If you've only got a dualshock, then you should probably just play with the keyboard and mouse.

Actually I do have a Thrustmaster.